Page 135 of Tiger's Dream
Ana’s hair framed her lovely face, the waves of it radiating away from her like brilliant rays from the face of the sun. I wanted to sink my fingers into it and gather it up by handfuls. To look at her was to understand the meaning of innocence and passion, siren and supplicant, strength and vulnerability. She was woman and goddess and girl all wrapped into one enticing creature.
As I stared down at her, my mouth open in shock, she reached toward me and ran her hand up my arm. I trembled with the fervent need to sink back down against her again and take advantage of the desire I saw in her eyes. The hunger I felt for her was overwhelming, and I couldn’t understand how the Grove of Dreams could have led me down such a shameful, guilt-ridden path.
“Sohan?” she said, her brows furrowed, but her moss-green eyes were still heavy-lidded with sleep. “What’s wrong?”
“I…I…I’m sorry,” I said. My body finally caught up to my brain and I scrambled away from her as quickly as possible. She sat up, her silken nightdress slipping farther down her shoulder. It was dangerously close to exposing her. Spinning around before it did, I fumbled for words. “I, um, I’ll be waiting for you out there.”
Whipping through the hanging vines, I ripped a few of them off the trees and tossed them violently aside as I stomped noisily through the forest. My whole body shook with tension. Leaving her and her intoxicating scent behind proved nearly impossible. Pacing back and forth like a caged beast, I ran a thumb across my mouth and closed my eyes. I could still taste her. My blood pounded in my veins, my body insisting I was an idiot for leaving a very warm, seemingly willing woman in bed alone.
The tiger in me saw nothing wrong with what I’d done. Ana was mine as I was hers. We were already bonded in a way that was incomparable. Nothing in the universe could keep us apart should we wish it. The tiger was driven by want and need and he was very close to the surface. Even now, a part of her called to me or, perhaps, to him. I stumbled a few steps and then heeded her summons, returning to the grove but not entering.
“I’m here,” I said through the vines stiffly. “What do you require?”
The plants lifted of their own accord as she stepped through. She wore a formfitting tunic as blue as a turquoise sea with soft doeskin breeches and knee-high boots. The clothing enhanced her figure enough to make my throat go dry and my pulse pound. Her hair was swept back, and I could see the slight red tinge on her neck that had likely been caused by the stubble on my jaw. I winced and looked away.
“What I require is that you explain your actions,” she said quietly.
“I…I don’t know what to say. I was dreaming and—” My mouth worked but no words came out. Glancing up, I saw her typical stubborn stance, her hands on her hips.
“Go on,” she said. “You were dreaming and…”
“And…nothing. It was nothing. It won’t happen again. I apologize. There was no reason for me to…”
“To…what?” She came closer, her long stride quickly closing the distance. Uncomfortable, I backed up and kept moving until my back hit a tree.
“To kiss you like that. I didn’t mean it. I promise it won’t happen again.”
“Oh?” She took another step, and if I could have disappeared into the trunk of the tree, I would have. “You didn’t mean it, you say? It felt to me like you meant it.” Ana wrapped her hand around my bicep and leaned into me. Her face was illuminated by a soft light that accented her features, especially her rosy sculpted mouth. My eyes drifted down to her supple lips and she smiled.
Sensing her emotions, which were as close to the surface as my own, I detected a lingering trace of desire there, but it was now hidden behind something else.Fear?Nervousness? Whatever it was, she wasn’t sharing. In dreaming, I’d been open to the woman, to Ana, completely, but upon waking, both of us put up our walls once more.
Still, she used our connection to speak to me.I dreamed too, Sohan, she said in my mind.There is indeed a space for me between the past and the future.I have seen it.And now that I know it is there, my aim is to take it for my own.Would you seek to deprive me of it?
“No, I—”
She interrupted me.You have always said that you are a man who fights for what he wants. Taking a small step closer, her thigh brushed against mine, and all coherent thought flew away like the wish of a fairy. Ana touched her fingertip to my collarbone and traced it slowly down my chest, only stopping when her finger met the fabric of my shirt. I felt every single millimeter of it.
Her eyes were fixed on my chest for a long moment. Then she splayed her hand over my heart.I’ll admit that what I want tortures me in more ways than one. Her voice was a quiet whisper in my mind. Turning her head, as if she could no longer look at me, she dropped her hands to her sides and asked,What is ityouwant, tiger?
“I want…I want…” I couldn’t think of a blessed thing in the world I wanted. At least, not anything appropriate. Not with her lips only a few inches away from mine. I’d promised Ana that I would be like a brother to her. Like a bosom companion. Not someone who constantly thought of her generous bosom. I closed my eyes, trying to remember the younger version of her. The child who relied on me, but I couldn’t bring her image to mind.
Ana looked up at me, studying my face for a long moment. Her mouth turned down as if disappointed. “Hmph,” Ana said and then flicked my nose with her finger. “Let me know when you figure it out.” She spun quickly and began marching off down the path. “Come, tiger,” she said. “We have work to do.” As I hiked behind her, I tried to look at the birds and the sky and the trees, anything but the sway of her hips or her long, long legs as she walked, but even when I stared at the ground, I thought of her mocking mouth that just begged to be silenced with a kiss.
When we reached the pass between the mountains where Kelsey and I had first spotted the giant tree, I was shocked to see it was already there. “Did you do this earlier?” I asked.
“No,” she said distractedly. Lifting her arms, she fashioned a bubble around us and we floated down to the ground far below. She stared up into the branches deep in thought as we walked. I described the tree and four houses in great detail as we moved along, but it was almost as if she wasn’t hearing me at all.
“Ana,” I said. “Ana, what did I just tell you?”
She waved a hand. “Something about the ravens, I think.”
“What’s bothering you?” I asked.
“It’s this tree.” She stopped and looked up, then snapped her fingers, and a giant leaf detached and twirled over us like a large kite until it settled on the ground nearby. Picking it up, she ran a hand over the leaf and closed her eyes. A few seconds later, they snapped open, an expression of surprise and delight on her face. “How fascinating!” she said.
“What?” I asked, running a hand across the back of my neck and swatting at a bug.
“The tree. It responds to emotion. Come here. Let’s test this out.”
